Spiegel learned about Germany's position against Russia's accession to NATO in the 1990s

In 1994, the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, considered the possibility of Russia joining the NATO bloc, but the European Union (EU) countries, especially Germany, opposed the initiative. This was reported on August 24 by Der Spiegel magazine with reference to relevant documents.

"The US president also faced strong opposition from his European allies <...> When it came to Russia's membership in NATO, the German government was adamant," the publication says.

It is noted that Clinton discussed joining the bloc with the first president of Russia, Boris Yeltsin.

Earlier, on August 21, the National Security Archive published documents showing that in 2000, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Clinton discussed the possible entry of the Russian Federation into the NATO bloc. Prior to that, Putin and Clinton had a one-on-one conversation in the Kremlin. During the conversation, the Russian leader reminded his colleague from the United States about their meeting in New Zealand in September 1999.

On February 9, 2024, Putin said that after the collapse of the USSR in 1991, Russia expected rapprochement with Western countries and even, possibly, joining NATO, but the events in Yugoslavia did not allow the United States and Russia to find a common language.

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